Method for managing a transition period during replacement of software or business process

Abstract

A method for managing a transition period during which a software application is replaced in a commercial organization is provided. The method comprises the steps of: providing a transition plan for execution during the transition period; providing a contingency plan to allow for contingency responses in case of unexpected events occurring during the execution of said transition plan; confirming readiness of at least part of the transition plan and the contingency plan; and carrying out the transition plan.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a method for reducing risks, and in particular, to a method of implementing risk management during a process of replacing software application(s) and / or business process(es)in organizations.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The ever-growing reliance of today's companies on various IT applications for their entire operation has turned these companies exposed to critical business mal-functioning at times when there is a need to upgrade one or more of these applications. Not only that all of the commercial data of such a company is associated with the old applications, but also these applications might be interconnected, and a replacement of one application may result in catastrophic results for users of other applications which had been retrieving data from the old application for use in their applications. At the same time, there is a growing rate at which these applications have to be replaced with new ones, ones that are m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]It is an object of the present invention to provide a method to reduce the risks to which organizations are subjected while undergoing transition which require replacing software application and / or a business process.

[0008]It is another object of the invention to provide a method to assist organizations in their preparation for assessing, tracking, and implementing replacement projects of software and / or business process.

[0009]It is still another object of the present invention to allow identifying critical possible business events that may occur during the transition period and to enable providing an adequate response thereto.

Problems solved by technology

The ever-growing reliance of today's companies on various IT applications for their entire operation has turned these companies exposed to critical business mal-functioning at times when there is a need to upgrade one or more of these applications.

Not only that all of the commercial data of such a company is associated with the old applications, but also these applications might be interconnected, and a replacement of one application may result in catastrophic results for users of other applications which had been retrieving data from the old application for use in their applications.

It is therefore very clear that such organizations become increasingly exposed to failures that might occur during transition periods, where the organization shifts from one software application to another.

Similar problems arise when a company decides to replace / modify its business process(es).

In addition, such replacement projects are very difficult to manage efficiently.

This is due partly to the fact that presently, the organization, planning, implementing and tracking of such replacement projects is not a one well thought process and there is too much reliance on ad-hock amendments of things to be carried out when the process is already under way.

On the other hand, the consequences of a failure in the process cannot be taken lightly and they might range from a temporary paralysis of part of the organization activity, up to even, in extreme cases, the collapse of a company that is not able to recover everything that has been lost while taking such a step.

Other drawbacks of a lack of end-to-end vision of the project might be: loosely defined methods and practices and inefficient use of staff time, and computer systems resources.

Such a transition process is very complex because the problems as well as personnel involved turn the process, whether the change is big or small, into a multi dimensional process, involving modules that are likely to effect the operation of other modules that are not being replaced, and would involve personnel from different layers, divisions, etc. of the organization, some of which may even not be the users of the application being replaced, but only users of applications that apply to one extend or another, certain outputs that should have been received from the replaced application by the applications they are using.

The complexity of managing such a process is even higher due in large part to the fact that presently, the organization, planning, implementing and tracking of such replacement projects is a manual process without the benefit of a central data warehouse to track project related information.

This in turn results in an increased risk of exposure for damage claims, losing clients, opening opportunities for fraudulent activities by staff or others, etc.

These issues ultimately result in increased costs.

Other drawbacks of organizing, planning, implementing and tracking such projects via manual means include non-centralized information, limited or non-existent daily, monthly and annual audit data and controls, a lack of end-to-end vision of the project, loosely defined methods and practices which vary significantly from one community to the other, an inefficient use of staff time, etc.

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